07 Dec New Roles and New Goals

By Jennifer Higgins

I hold a Ph.D. in Gerontology from the University of Massachusetts, and I have spent more than 25 years in the nonprofit sector, in roles ranging from direct support to executive positions.

Why do I start there? Because that is just who I have been up until now; I am still growing, personally and professionally, and that description will continue to evolve with me.

Recently, I added Foundation President to my descriptors and life experience. My new professional goal is to continue directing both a for-profit company and a nonprofit charitable foundation. This new role allows me to provide funding for anti-poverty and employment-related programs. Based on a wealth redistribution model, CommonWealth GrantWorks recognizes the value of employment training and security for reducing and possibly eradicating poverty amongst subsets of the American population.

I aimed to provide qualified individuals with the tools necessary to realize their employment-related dreams, whether in entrepreneurship, professional development, equipment needs or on-the-job training. The Foundation allows me to do that.

I am not alone in the work, of course. I am very proud of the hard-working CommonWealth GrantWorks grant-writing team, who raise our revenue. I then redistribute that income via a charitable donation arm of the company, targeting hard-to-employ individuals and groups, such as individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.

I am also wrapping up my MBA this month at Springfield College; it has been a pleasure honing my understanding of nonprofit management. The program has sharpened my focus on what lies ahead for my two companies. And I decided that the next step in my professional development is to enhance my understanding of data capture and management for my two organizations. So I am enrolled in the University of Massachusetts at Lowell’s Master of Science in Health Information Management Program, which begins in February 2022.

I am intellectually excited by the prospect that we will be able to evaluate our programs in the following ways:

• • Quantitative methods, including evaluation of total clients and types of grants made; and
  • Qualitative methods, including self-report evaluation of client experience and satisfaction.

We will track specific variables like demographics of and total clients served; total number and type of grants made; geographic regions served; client outcome, experience and satisfaction; organizational growth and fund acquisition, etc. We will collect, store, and extract data from a soon-to-be-acquired robust electronic data capture system and use a mixed-methods approach to evaluating our charitable giving activities over time.

Believe it or not, this is all fun for me!

So I am heading into 2022 with high expectations for growth—my own, my company’s, my team’s, the Foundation’s and our recipients’. I am excited to continue evolving and adding new roles and new goals to the story of who I am.

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Jennifer Higgins, Ph.D., is the President of CommonWealth GrantWorks and President of the CommonWealth GrantWorks Foundation. She has dedicated 25 years to the nonprofit sector and has extensive experience writing successful grants for nonprofits. While launching her small business, CommonWealth GrantWorks, in 2019, she was awarded several multi-million-dollar awards from state agencies for one of her clients.